


Small Ways

by candyquasar



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 08:00:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5489624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candyquasar/pseuds/candyquasar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick loving you, silently, and in small ways. You aren’t actually sure if he does love you in the way you love him, but you focus too much on it and just hope. There’s something more to it than just friends or business partners, or at least, you think so.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Ways

Nick loving you, silently, and in small ways. You aren’t actually sure if he _does_ love you in the way you love him, but you focus too much on it and just hope. There’s something more to it than just friends or business partners, or at least, you think so.

You don’t see it but in camp he keeps watch while you sleep. He fondly looks back at you every now and then, his chest whirrs with appreciation. When you wake there’s roasted radroach and some clean water. He always cooks the food because you forget to. When he can he takes the dirty water from your packs and replaces it with pure water. He always does. You notice and of course, ask him about it.

He appears only mildly surprised, making a jab at himself for not being too sneaky despite being such a slick detective. “Well, I’d hate to see the one person in the Commonwealth that gives more than a damn about me than Ellie, die of radiation poisoning.”

You two trade favors. Or at least that’s what you say when you try to convince yourself he thinks of you as nothing more than a friend. He folds his coat into a nice square and sets it beside himself. He loosens his tie and unbuttons his shirt for you to check him, there are bullet holes riddled through his faux skin and you can see the wiring and metal skeleton underneath. He took one too many hits for you and while normally he could do this himself, at the moment he’s lacking an arm (which you have tucked into your pack).

He offers you some duct tape. “A quick fix for now. Just get me back to my office and we can get this all smoothed over don’t you worry.”

Later he calls you a _damn fool_ for not letting him carry you somewhere safe after you do the exact same thing he always does, jumping in front of him in a fight to protect him. He lets it slide until all the raiders are dead (though he fiercely wanted you to flee the fight with him). There’s holes in you and your leg is broken and he immediately lifts you up while you protest about the loot and bodies. But he’s stubborn, he sets your leg and then is taking you back to Diamond City or Sanctuary or Goodneighbor or wherever the hell is closest so he can get you some help. “There’s plenty of raider camps in the Commonwealth for you to plunder and sweetheart, I only got _one_ of you.”

Your feelings are finally, truly confirmed, when he sees you hurt the most he’s ever managed to see you. Most of the gang is there actually, and they’re all worried about you, so fiercely worried, but him the most. He always is, you realize.  
  
He knows you’re resilient, so at the beginning he doesn’t worry (well he always worries, but he didn’t worry _as much_ ). Bullets graze your arms as you dart around popping raiders off left and right. Hancock is by your side having a blast (quite literally) as he blows down enemies with a laser pistol. Nick follows, always keeping you within his line of sight, and he isn’t the only robot following you. Codsworth takes the middle road, he sticks close to you, but is not by your side like Hancock. He keeps you within sight of any one of his eyes at a time and close enough to get you a stimpack the second one of those grazing bullets finally hits home.

Preston is roosted on top of one of the buildings, sniping at raiders you can’t see, but they can see you. Nick notices this when he spots the gunflash behind you, and the subsequent thud as the bullet from Preston’s rifle pierces their skull.

The first wound is actually a bit of friendly fire, Piper had shot at your target just as you had killed them, giving you a nice hole in your shoulder. You swing your gun around towards her (not realizing it was her) and see her shocked face (and the tail end of Danse’s chiding remark as he gives her gawking some coverfire). She’s too far away to hear but you can see her mouthing “I’m so sorry, oh my god!” before Danse calls her attention back to the fight. Codsworth is almost instantly on you, giving you a stimpack and trying to wrap your shoulder as you maneuver to cover.

Nick doesn’t descend on you like Codsworth did, but his proximity to you increases. He knows you’ll be fine -at least for now- and that Codsworth was quick to react (as always), but now he’s just a few steps closer to being able to catch you if you fall.

However, he can’t catch things falling _on you_ . A supermutant falls on you when it dies, with a belated warning from Deacon to “Oh shit get out of the way!”. It doesn’t seem like such a serious thing but super mutants are _heavy_ and _dense_. Your left leg is broken you’re certain all the bones in your left arm and hand are broken. Nick of course, starts sprinting over but Strong makes it there first, pulling the body off you and slinging it into the fray (knocking down raiders like bowling pins) and helps you up. He pushes Codsworth toward you (whom was already hovering his fastest toward you) before giving the two of you a wide berth and swinging his oversized hammer onto enemies.

Codsworth gives you another stimpack and hovers as low as he can to let you put all your weight on him. He then slowly guides you into a building. He weaves you through aisles that have long been stripped free of anything of use, and you plop down behind the counter. You pocket a few caps and pre-war money while Codsworth re-wraps your bandage, applies new ones, and does his best to make a splint out of the random things you’ve managed to pick up. You can hear that Hancock is crouched just inside the doorway of the shop with Deacon as they chatter, and Nick comes in just as Codsworth finishes his handiwork.  
  
“Certainly a mess this is turning out to be.” Nick remarks when he takes in your injuries. Codsworth whirrs, glancing between you and Nick.  
  
“Yes, mm, do be mindful of the super mutants. ‘M not quite certain your legs can take another _crushing.”_ You reassure the two of them that you will try your hardest to avoid being crushed by super mutant corpses and offer them some motivational words (that Nick takes with a grain of salt) as Nick offers you a hand and pulls you to your unsteady feet. You limp out with your mostly non-human posse.

You officially clock out of the brawl when Nick sees a raider coming that you don’t. He calls out a warning that you don’t hear and he breaks into a run as the raider shoots you in the back. While Nick normally admires your oddly quick reflexes, it leads you into exacerbating your injuries as when you whip around to face your attacker, they pistol whip you and you it the ground with a crunch. Hancock and Nick make it to you at the same time.

Hancock is instantly descending on the raider with a short range laser to the skull and Nick is kneeling down, lifting you up into his arms. His head swings around for somewhere to hide you away from the fight as Hancock gives you cover fire ( as well as signalling to Danse to help him). Nick spots Codsworth waving and shouting, pointing him in the right direction, and the three of you dart into an alleyway two streets away. Hancock and Danse follow slowly behind, taking care of any raiders.

Nick sits down, cradling you in his lap for Codsworth to examine you. The Mr. Handy prepares some supplies and Nick holds your head in his hands. Your eyes are unfocused and the sun high in the sky, right behind his head. It’s hard to see him.  
  
“Look at me dollface, look at me.” He moves his head and blocks the sun and you try to track the soft yellow glow you know to be his eyes. “There you go.”  
  
He pulls up his tie and holds it to your nose, which has been streaming blood down your face. Codsworth taps Nick, and the two of them look at your wounds. They peel off your makeshift armor and zip down your vault jumpsuit just far enough to see the bullet hole. You’re having trouble hearing them speak and you can’t really see either of them anymore but you can tell Nick’s a little relieved by what he sees. He says something to Codsworth.  
  
“ _The filthy ground of an alleyway is hardly suitable.”_ He chides, but at the moment none of them can do anything about that. After that you can’t really remember. Except that it hurt, explosively.  
  
If Nick could cry he would, but instead he’s just noisy. The loud whirr of fans running at top speed and you can feel the unnatural warmth in his hands as he holds you gently. He doesn’t want to crush you or reopen anything but at the moment you’re barely conscious and they can’t move you from that alley unless they want to risk rejoining the fight. Hancock and Danse stand at the end of the alley (with Hancock repeatedly looking back at you and Nick) keeping watch, while Codsworth yet again takes up the in-between space. He patched you up as well as he can with what he has, but he stays close as always, just in case.

Nick holds you. Because you screamed as Codsworth had to re-set your leg. Because Nick finally dropped his bloody tie from your nose to cover your mouth with his hand to keep anyone from hearing where your friends were hiding you and trying to help you.

  
“I’m so sorry dear, I’m so sorry.” He whispers. Afterwards Codsworth re-wraps your hand and the rest of your make-shift bandages that have bled through as Nick holds you, and he lets you bleed all over his lovely coat and shirt.  
  
“If you make it out of this fracas alive, I swear-” He cuts himself off and looks down at you. “I love you so much, so damn much please just- just make it out of here alive okay?”


End file.
